Microsoft Corp. today announced the global availability of its popular Windows operating system, Windows 8. Beginning Friday, Oct. 26, consumers and businesses worldwide will be able to experience all that Windows 8 has to offer, including a beautiful new user interface and a wide range of applications with the grand opening of the Windows Store. As a result of close work with hardware partners, more than 1,000 certified PCs and tablets, including Microsoft Surface, will be available for the launch of Windows 8 — making it the best lineup of PCs ever across the Windows 8 and Windows RT ecosystem.

"We have reimagined Windows and the result is a stunning lineup of new PCs," said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. "Windows 8 brings together the best of the PC and the tablet. It works perfect for work and play and it is alive with your world. Every one of our customers will find a PC that they will absolutely love."

Windows 8 will be available for download to upgrade existing PCs in more than 140 markets and 37 languages at http://www.windows.com/buy beginning at 12:01 a.m. local time and at retail locations around the world. At retail, Windows 8 will be available in two primary versions — Windows 8 and Windows 8 Pro — as well as Windows 8 Enterprise for large organizations. Launching at the same time is a new member of the Windows family — Windows RT — designed for ARM-based tablets and available pre-installed on new devices. In addition to Microsoft Office 2013, Windows RT is designed exclusively for apps in the new Windows Store. Windows 8 features the new fast and fluid Start screen that gives people one-click access to the apps and content they care most about. It also features an entirely new Internet Explorer 10 that is perfect for touch, and built-in cloud capabilities with SkyDrive.

Windows 8 can be purchased in a variety of ways from the world's leading retailers, including Amazon, Best Buy and Staples in the U.S., Casas Bahia in Brazil, Future Shop and Staples in Canada, Suning in China, Media Markt across Europe, FNAC in France, Yamada in Japan, Telmex in Mexico, Dixons in the U.K., and many more, which will feature a variety of offers for customers looking for great deals on Windows 8 PCs, devices and software. Consumers can go to http://www.windows.com/shop to learn about the large array of Windows 8 devices available and find the one that best fits their needs. More information on the great offers around the world is available at http://www.blogs.windows.com/.

In addition to the range of new Windows-based devices available, consumers can also upgrade their existing PCs. Through the end of January, consumers currently running PCs with Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7 are qualified to download an upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for an estimated retail price of US$39.99. And eligible Windows 7 PCs purchased between June 2, 2012, and Jan. 31, 2013, in more than 140 markets can download an upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for an estimated retail price of US$14.99 with the Windows Upgrade Offer, available at http://www.windowsupgradeoffer.com/.

Looking forward to it; even purchased the 8 Pro box upgrade from Amazon for old times sake. Can't wait to try out Hyper-V as VirtualBox is slow as hell and the free version of VMWare doesn't have snapshot support.

Suit yourselves, I have Windows 8 Pro installed on both my desktop and laptop, and I enjoy it. I don't even have to personalize my desktop on each machine anymore because it automatically syncs across them.

And kill switches? Ever heard of Apple iOS or Google Android? Those have kill switches and we entrust those devices to call 911 when we need them to.

I like the sound of some features, but I dislike the dumbed down appleness of it, the bsod screen currently displays some very useful information like the driver that has gone wrong, for instance if my wireless card causes a bsod (I rarely even use it) I can just ignore the bsod and pull it out as I can see the driver for it has caused the crash.

Now im going to have to troll through event log just because some retarded people can't cope with all that info and need their screen to be filled with a bloody huge sadface!

I don't think it is worth getting Windows 8 until its SP1 is released so any flaws it does suffer from in the beginning are ironed out and you don't have to do so many updates later on too incomparison to getting a first release OS Disk.

Besides officially speaking the benchmarks on Windows 7 and Windows 8 are very little in difference for desktop PCs and all Windows 8 is a real benefit to is laptops and tablets more than they are to desktop PCs which a lot of users on here tend to use.

Make no mistakes Windows 8 is an improvement and is essentially a better version of Windows 8, although are some questionable features which works out being 'backwards' and a new unwanted issue overall; and also most on here have worked out getting the first release OS isn't the best idea if you want the best from Windows 8 or any Windows OS for that matter.

windows 8 rules, if you have it legitly it syncs up with facebook office, skydrive msn/windows live, without you doing anything but log in.. ive been testing it since day 1 as a free trial sorta thing, all my worries were fixed in the patches expecially the old problems with pics not opening up.

Looking forward to it; even purchased the 8 Pro box upgrade from Amazon for old times sake. Can't wait to try out Hyper-V as VirtualBox is slow as hell and the free version of VMWare doesn't have snapshot support.

Windows 8 is a great OS. Try it for a significant amount of time before giving a horrible uneducated response to one of the biggest OS releases in the PC world. Windows 8 isn't just the desktop OS. It's the ecosystem it coexists with, its the Xbox 360 console that millions of people own across the globe, and lets not forget about Windows Phone 8.

This is an awesome time to be enthused about Microsoft. If you don't see it, you're BLIND.
I'm not saying everyone should ditch 7 and go for 8. I'm not saying that at all (That would be dumb).

What I'm saying is, look at the big picture.

When you see it, you'll see why this OS is very important for Microsoft, developers, and users. It's a pretty big deal.

Blah blah to those that aren't getting it. CUS SOONER OR LATER YOU WILL UPGRADE! REASON? ITS THE LATEST OS. And since you know that, BUY THE FREAKING OS NOW YOU MORONS! Its so DARNNNNN CHEAP (when link is up though)
Anyway personally, i don't like the style, but oh well.